South Dakota governor Mike Rounds signed a law into effect today that would outlaw the practice of abortion on demand in his state, with exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies. the governor recognized that the law conflicts with Roe v. Wade and said that South Dakota's existing abortion laws would stay in effect until the legal issues surrounding this law were settled.

The pro-abortion minions have yet to decide whether they will challenge the law through the appellate process, or with a state-wide referendum this November.

After signing the law, the governor said, "In the
history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well
people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society.
The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong
because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless
persons in our society. I agree with them."

Amen.

Since the turn of the 20th century, certain secularist intellectuals and progressives have argued that the impoverished, the destitute, the handicapped, and the terminally ill are not worthy of being saved. New proponents of these ideas continue to come forward every few decades.

In Holland, the government has finally given in and has announced that they will be forming a committee to oversee and regulate the euthanization of gravely ill infants. The euthanization of adults has been practiced under government supervision in Holland for some time now. So has the euthanization of infants; the government has simply turned a blind eye because it has been relatively rare and because fearful doctors have heavily regulated the practice themselves.

Recently our church has been involved with the family of a very precious little boy named Fletcher Burns. He is only a little over a year old and yet he has endured open heart surgery, pneumonia, a trach tube for breathing, a peg tube for feeding, a direct arterial line for medication, and has been more or less on ventilation for the duration of his earthly life. Fletcher's family has posted a website that tells his story and includes pictures and periodic updates by the family. If you pray regularly, please remember little Fletcher and his longsuffering family.

There is no doubt in my mind that in a nation like Holland, Fletcher's life would have been snuffed out by doctors long ago, either at the request of the parents or at the urging of doctors who are more concerned about the administrative and financial burdens that gravely ill patients impose upon the medical system.

And finally in Ohio, a battle has been going on for some time over the right of parents to sue doctors who fail to find birth defects before a child is born. The legislature is working on a bill to outlaw such lawsuits, while the state supreme court ruled 4-3 last week that such lawsuits are permissible, but that parents can only collect damages proportional to the cost of childbirth and neonatal care.

It would seem to me that a more fundamental question that courts should be considering in these cases is whether or not the "parents" of such a child -- who have freely expressed their prior desire to terminate its life and who are undoubtedly seething with bitterness over the prospect of being saddled with the child as a burden for the rest of its life -- should be allowed to remain the legal guardians of such a child. It seems doubtful to me that such parents could be trusted to make medical decisions that would be in the child's best interest.